The savage murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk spotlights an inflection event battle for America’s future.
A war pitting peaceful warriors of dispute resolution through rational discourse against a growing radical subculture seeking mainstream control through violence and intimidation.
And yes, this deadly war zone appears to have decidedly partisan-weighted demographic leanings.
Recall more than 500 destructive riots during a 2020 “Summer of Love” which resulted in injuries to hundreds, deaths to many, and billions in property damage which were broadly dismissed by the liberal media as “mostly peaceful protests,” while an unruly assembly at our nation’s capital over a contested election that left a peaceful protestor dead served as an excuse for presidential impeachment.
President Trump’s personal residence — Mar a Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida — was subsequently raided (Aug. 8, 2022) by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), executing a search warrant, seeking documents he was authorized to retain while unauthorized classified materials found in his successor’s unsecured garage were considered no big deal.
At the time then-U.S. President Joe Biden was described by then-U.S. Special Counsel Robert Hur, as an: “elderly man with a poor memory.”
These events were followed by endless lawsuits attempting to seize his property, bankrupt and imprison him on phony charges, and two assassination attempts, all amid prevalent media epitaphs by top Biden administration officials and media moguls, who hypocritically labelled Trump as a tyrant and threat to democracy.
To be clear, whereas perpetrators of those failed assassination attempts are solely responsible — not hateful name callers — there is nevertheless enormously disturbing evidence of an increasingly normalized acceptance of death cult ideology within broad factions of the Democratic Party.
A chilling survey of more than 1,200 U.S. adults conducted by the Network Contagion Research Network (NCRI) and Rutgers University Social Perception Lab found 55% of “left of center” responders at least somewhat justifying murder of President Trump after the July and September 2024 assassination attempts, while 48% felt that same way regarding Elon Musk.
“These are not isolated opinions,” the report states. “They are part of a tightly connected belief system linked to what we call left-wing authoritarianism” which is cited as “the strongest predictor for all categories of political violence.”
Weighted to reflect national census demographics, the survey also shockingly found that 38% of all U.S. respondents said killing Trump would be “at least somewhat justified,” meaning there was “significantly higher justification,” and that 39% think “it is at least somewhat acceptable (or more) to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest.”
Joel Finkelstein, the lead author of the report, told Fox News Digital, “What was formerly taboo culturally has become acceptable. We are seeing a clear shift — glorification, increased attempts and changing norms — all converging into what we define as ‘assassination culture.'”
Finkelstein believes the psychological roots of this culture are a mix of ideological radicalism and feelings of powerlessness, particularly in the aftermath of electoral losses.
“Trump represents the perfect target for assassination culture” Finkelstein adds. “He’s rich and he’s provocative. That puts him on the highest shelf for those who glorify political violence.”
And while Finkelstein noted the existence of some level of violent sentiment on the right, the study found a 41% higher statistical endorsement of political murder among left-leaning participants.
As for that “justification among self-identified left-of-center participants, support for vandalism and property damage such as destroying a Tesla dealership, Finkelstein observed that “Tesla has become a stand-in for broader frustrations about capitalism, tech power and conservative politics,” whereby “Burning down a dealership isn’t just a protest, it’s a performance, a signal of belonging to a radical in-group.”
The NCRI study traces this cultural shift back to the December 2024 assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione which made the alleged assailant a folk hero among radical admirers through the outgrowth of a dark online movement.
Joel Finkelstein points to special online radicalization influence of the far-left Bluesky social platform which saw a spike in engagement on posts referencing Mangione, Trump and Musk, crossing over 200,000 posts and 2 million engagements in just months.
The NCRI study concludes that far-left online platforms such as Bluesky “play a strong predictive role in amplifying” a culture of violence in which these ecosystems aren’t just justified, but also “stylized, gamified, and embedded within a broader ideological narrative.”
Finkelstein warns that: “When people feel like they have no say, no future and no leadership offering vision, they become susceptible to radical ideation and that’s when the memes turn into permission structures for real violence . . . Combine that with extreme partisanship, and you get an explosive mix.”
“If leaders on the left explicitly condemn these trends and reassert moral norms, they can dismantle this culture quickly,” he said. “It’s about reminding people there is a future worth striving for that doesn’t involve glorifying political violence.”
“With economic instability and ideological echo chambers feeding radicalism, the threat environment is shifting beneath our feet,” Finkelstein said. “But recognizing that — hearing the sirens — is the first step to stopping it.”
Although Finkelstein doesn’t believe censorship will end the assassination culture, he thinks that strong leadership just might.
Charlie Kirk was such a leader, one who didn’t believe in censorship and combatted ideology with open debate, respectful responses to opposing ideas, and logical reasoning.
Maybe we all should take those lessons from him?
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is “Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design” (2022). Read Larry Bell’s Reports — More Here.
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